Lets be positive about community (for a change).. which ones stand out for you?

Ok, in the interest of maybe talking about ourselves in a positive way for once (because like it or not we ARE the communities we ourselves slag off) give your three highest rated sevrer community from the games ytou have played, for whatever reason.

Mine are;

Everquest 2, Guk server.

City of Heroes, Virtue server

Vanguard, Telon server.

Each of these has a great server culture and is led in the main by the community builders. There are dicks on each, sure, there always will be, but the overall culture on each of these is healthy and positive, a fact that the people playing on them should be proud of. CoH's Virtue probably wins through as having the best server culture and overall community I have ever played on.

I know this thread will probably be on the thirdpage within a couple of hours, seeing as it isnt a flame or has anything in it to make the majority angry enough to respond to, but while it lasts give a shout out to those communities that have impressed you.

Comments

Just based strictly on community, rather than what I'm actually playing (currently playing EQ2 and Vanguard):

1. Istaria (formerly Horizons) - Chaos Server. Honestly wished the game had a bit more for me to do, as I absolutely love the community each time I have gone back to try the game. Ask a question in chat and you have several new friends helping you out sending tells and offering gear.

2. EverQuest 1 - Firiona Vie Server. With SOE All Access, I ended up transferring all my toons here (can do so for free at the moment) and still play from time to time. Friendly, helpful community and pleasant to deal with when crossing paths out in the world.

3. LotRO - Landroval Server. For such a busy server, it's amazing how polite the general chat channels are. Great roleplay community as well.

"There are at least two kinds of games.One could be called finite, the other infinite.A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse

Originally posted by Plus_OneCoH: Any Server, It's just a really great community overall. Not nearly as much Douchbaggery as you see in some other notorious communities.

Well, they did have that one guy posting a new horror story about "how my pugs always suck" every single day, but he got banned eventually. But yas, CoH had a very calm, adult forum.

I remember the DAoC community being a remarkably calm one, for a PVP oriented game. You know how PVP forums tend to go, "Brag brag" "Trash Talk" "OMG ovrpowered, nerf plz". Remarkably little of that.

But hands down the best communities I ever experienced were in MUDs, generally small games with player bases of 2000 or less. I think Massive goes counter to communities in many ways, no accountability, server transfers to lose a bad rep, etc. You can't transfer out to escape the consequences of your actions when there's only one server. MUDs also consisted primarily of roleplayers, the common interest helped form a lot of bonds.

Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.

Lord of the Rings Online has one of the friendlist groups of people i have come across in game. Though dont judge that in the Bree area or just 1-20ish. I find it to fit me well. I can do my silly RP things with others joining me from time to time. I met friendly people while not always being able to help with certain quest and thigns would always give me advice and even tell me thigns I would need to know in advance such as when I wanted to make my RK they told me i needed to get Moria xpac so go that way and save spending munnies on the Class alone etc etc. Gave me links to helpful sites and even did my first skrimishes with me as I was a bit overwhelmed by them at first. OH yea helped me with gear and weapons openly and not always wanting the mats just using what they had around at times. I had not come across this big of a grop of fun loving people since my first MMO Ashrons Call. Thats not to say the others didnt have there nice people just such a big one so easily found.

1. Eve online - it's crucial to find a great corp with great people, but it is very possible. Eve has a great community. Can anyone name any other mmo that has a "help channel" superior to Eve's help channel? I doubt it.

2. DAOC - back when the game was young, and PVE pugs were common. Those were good times with good, random people.

3. EQ - Fippy Darkpaw today. The community is about 50% cool people and 50% crappy people, which is much better than most current mmo's.

Honestly, I tried pretty hard to think of any decent communities in mainstream, publicly availble MMO servers and came up with nothing. The experiences I've had that were outsanding have always been in smaller, player ran communities for games like UO. Private servers, usually with a role playing emphasis.

AC2 is top for me by a mile even though the game is dead.People will go out of their way to help you for hours .New players always got help .People were super polite in it and the community was small but very close.

EQ2 .I heard a few people post how they got insulted for asking questions in EQ2.Now i dunno but on oasis or AB ,i have the level 1-9 chat on constantly and i never seen anyone insult .Not only will they give advice ,many have offered to mentor down and help new players go to dungeons etc.

most possitive community's for me was those from EQ2 en VanguardBoth where filled with friendly and helpfull players.

All the way. I was just checking the thread and I thought exactly the same. VG and EQ communities are awesome. Probably becouse both are games that promote grouping.

Lotro used to had a great community, tho it started deteriorating when they introduced all the radiance gating and the token bartering trend.

I ve also come across many friendly players in CO, probably becouse it's a very casual game where maxing your toon (level and gear) is damned easy, so most players are just casual guys with severe altholism.

Originally posted by Elikal3. EQ2, at least back then, dunno how it is these days

Depends where you are... On Guk, like I say,I found it excellent, but on (for instance) Antonia Bayle I found it to be just horrible (which to be honest suprised me with it being an unofficial RP server).

This is why I asked people to name servers, rather then just games. One'sserver culture can be hugely different from another in the same game, especially if one is PvP and the other PvE.

Honestly, I tried pretty hard to think of any decent communities in mainstream, publicly availble MMO servers and came up with nothing. The experiences I've had that were outsanding have always been in smaller, player ran communities for games like UO. Private servers, usually with a role playing emphasis.

Now, c'mon, this thread is about being positive, not negative criticism of mainstream games.Others have managed it, I am sure you can if you try

If you cannot, well then maybe try some of the servers people are talking about, they might change your mind.

1) DAOC, both MLF and even Mordred back in the early days before TOA/New Frontiers killed the game.

2) EVE - No,seriously, if you know how to approach it you won't find a better bunch of folks, where even your enemies will normally help you understand what you did wrong. (and assuming you aren't looking for the "Land of Care-a-lot"

3) LOTRO at launch - can't recall what server I was on, but the folks there were helpful, friendly, and my guild (kinship?) ran a few server music festivals which went over real well, felt like I actually was living in that world for a spell.

In my day MMORPG's were so hard we fought our way through dungeons in the snow, uphill both ways.

Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon

GuildWars UK English - I play there specifically for the community (I'm in USA myself). Very little noise, helpful players who politely answer questions when asked, just overall a decent group of people.

Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.

Why? Because the game supports a decent community. If your community sucks, it's likely because your game favors solo whack-a-mole style questing and retarded public events that form exactly zero bond/cohesion between you and the other people on your server save the people in your guild and on your friend's list.

That is why so many modern MMO communities are garbage. If you want a good community ask your developers to put in party leveling as a result you get:

1. More knowledgable players (extremely noticeable in endgame, I really feel sorry for endgame shells in WoW, GW, LotRO, EQ2, and soon GW2, SWTOR, and Tera who have to recruit from a pool with zero accountability in actually learnign to play their class up to endgame.

2. Less trolls/problem players due to the necessity of actually relying on the rest of the server.

3. A more helpful community. Most people look out for others and help new players because it is a potential group mate later on.

I've played all those modern MMO's there is a reason their communities suck and it is not just new people being drawn into the genre those games simply don't have any mechanics in place to support a healthy community and in many cases (Rift, WoW) they actually work counter to it.

In an attempt to be more positive: Vanguard Seradon server. However that game relied pretty heavily on the guild you were in, and the overall community was not nearly as good as XI, EQ1, and XIV's ever were. That's it though, I can't think of another I'd even mention in the same sentence as the word good.

I'm working off the basis that more leftfield/alternative or smaller & niche MMOs have a greater chance for players to develop a community... as long as the MMO can survive at a small total number of subs.

So far Outer Empires, the chat channel is helpful. There's a few grudges between some of the established players it seems, as the game is sandbox empire building game where alliances are important. I'll report back when I know more eg after my first PvP hiding (!), but that's the working hypothesis: Looking for positive communities based on potentially conducive criteria.

That used to be a lot easier question to answer,before ftp. You could count on the WoW crowd being generally the youngest and breaking all records for rude behavior. That has probably not changed. And LOTR was thought by many to be the most mature,friendly,and helpful. I hear it is hit and miss now since ftp. The D&D population used to be known as a good bunch of players,since ftp I hear that isn't true now. Eve vets were always nice and helpful to new players at least,but the recent rebellion against a store there has caused many of the vets to leave. I don'r know what it is like there now. I rarely hear or read that a ftp game has a nice,friendly,helpful population. Sorry if that offends you,just repeating what I read and hear from players. I guess no money spent means no obligations to others or risk to the bad-behaved players. I am sure there must be ftp games that are the exception though. Seems I never hear good or bad about Guild Wars' players. Have recently been reading bad behavior from AOC since ftp. Rift generally has had and continues to have one of the more mature,friendly ,helpful populations. Generally,many old timers will tell you that RP servers are the best bet for a good population,and pvp servers are where the rude jerks lurk. Just repeating what I read and hear over the years. Holding up a mirror. No offense meant.